Obtaining crucial data on wild species can be extremely challenging, and a variety of problems may prevent finding cryptic animals in diverse environments. The unparalleled abilities of canine olfaction offers a way to increase proficiency in non-invasively collecting information on endangered, rare and hard to find species and detect and remove threats to wildlife. More than 80 publications detail how canines have been employed to locate wildlife sign, live animals, and plants, and in the past two decades alone the use of trained dogs as a survey tool has increased dramatically. At the forefront of the conservation dog field, Working Dogs for Conservation (WDC) has been selecting, training and deploying dogs that 'live to work’ for projects worldwide, using and refining current methods and developing new approaches to address present and future challenges. Collaborating with agencies, NGOs, researchers, students and grassroots community groups since 2000, WDC dog-biologist teams have detected nearly 40 species in 18 states and 16 countries. Dog-collected data has enabled a host of incredible conservation achievements ranging from developing eradication techniques for a highly invasive weed in Montana to determining the whereabouts of the world’s most endangered primate - the Cross River gorilla - in West Africa to identifying occupied San Joaquin kit fox habitat where partners armed with these survey results leveraged over $2.5M for its purchase and permanent protection in California.
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